In the electrostatographic printing industry, there is a trend of using fuser belts to replace fuser rolls due to the compact structure, low energy consumption and high speed of the fuser belts. For example, current fuser belts include polyimide belts made by coating and curing from a polyimide-based solution. In order to obtain desired properties of the resulting polyimide belts, especially mechanical properties, the curing process is often performed at high temperatures of over 300° C. for a long time. For example, one conventional curing process includes a bake at about 380° C. for 1 hour, which in turn follows one or more pre-bakes for about 1 to 2 hours.
In some cases, conventional polyimide materials may be free of curing (e.g., not curable), or may be partially cured at low temperatures. However, such polyimide materials can not provide desired mechanical strength for use as a belt.
For manufacturing ease and energy savings without sacrificing the material characteristics, there is a need to provide a fast and low temperature cured belt material and methods for making and using the belt material.